that she was
kind to him and humored all his fancies; and once, when he lay upon the
couch, with the baby's picture in his hand, she went and sat by him and
ran her fingers caressingly through his white hair, and asked if he were
not better.

'Yes, Dolly,' he said, taking her fingers in his hand and holding them
fast. 'A great deal better. Jerrie's baby has done me good, and you,
too, Dolly. You don't knew how nice it seems to have you smooth my hair;
it is like the old days at Langley, when we sang in the choir together,
and you were fond of me.'

'I am fond of you now, Frank,' Dolly replied, as she stooped to kiss the
face in which there was a look she had never seen before, and which
haunted her long after he had said good-night and gone to Maude's room,
where he said he would sleep, as he was likely to be restless and might
keep her awake.

The next morning Dolly took her breakfast alone, for Frank did not join
her.

'Let him sleep,' she said to the servant, who suggested calling him; but
when some time later, he did not appear, she went herself to Maude's
room, into which the noonday sun was shining, for every blind and window
was open and the light was so dazzling that for a moment she did not see
the still figure stretched upon the bed, where with Maude's picture in
one hand and Jerrie's baby's in the other, her husband lay, calmly
sleeping the sleep which knows no waking.

On his face there was a look of rapturous joy, and on his lips a smile
as if they were framing the loved name of Maude when death came and
sealed them forever. Around him was no sign of struggle or pain, for the
covering was not disturbed; and the physician when he came said he must
have died quietly and possibly instantly without a note of warning. They
buried him beside his daughter and then Dolly was alone in the great
house, which became so intolerable to her that she left it early in
August and took possession of the cottage on the Ridge, which, though
scarcely less lovely, was not as large as the Park House and did not
seem haunted with the ghosts of the dead.

And so it happened that Mrs. Crawford alone stood in the door-way to
welcome the travellers when, late in the bright October afternoon they
came, tired and dusty, but oh, so glad to be home once more and to feel
that now it really was home to all intents and purposes.

'I never was so glad in my life, and if Uncle Frank were here I should
be perfectly happy,' Jerrie crie